Come listen to Ryan Mason, owner of Reclaim Urban Farm discuss the pleasures of small scale agriculture and gardening. Ryan will take you on a short journey of how his farm progressed including the failures, success, and what they are trying to accomplish before moving on to the functional aspects of the farm. Learn about the tips, tools and tricks that an urban farmer uses to grow food locally so that you can apply this in your own garden. Discuss the relevant opportunities for organic market gardening and the challenges associated with this, while dealing with multiple types of soil quality throughout the city and the lots they grow on. Bring your questions and prep your garden, spring time is coming and Ryan will knock your squash off.

Food lover, gardener, husband and pensively absent, Ryan has grown roots to gardening and Alberta that stretch way down. His great grandfather began it all when he immigrated to Edmonton and tried to make a living off of 5 acres in current day Bonnie Doon area. Ryan was raised on a small farm at Pigeon Lake, where he competed with his brother to see who could fill the most yogurt containers with raspberries (and won)! Through the Augustana Campus, UofA he traveled to Mexico and Cuba where he renewed his passion for food justice and learned from the best campesinas around. Just recently, he returned from Tanzania where his food security research enabled him to work alongside wakulimu (farmers) harvesting, thrashing and winnowing an assortment of grains. Bringing us back full circle, he follows in his great grandfather's footsteps to grow great food in the heart of a great city.

Reclaim Urban Farm is a multi-locational farm that uses vacant or underutilized land to grow vegetables for sale at farmers markets, restaurants and food retailers. The farm works with local land owners to market garden using sustainable low impact methods. In addition to outdoor market gardening, Reclaim Urban Farm uses part of a warehouse space as an indoor farm (vertical garden) to grow herbs and microgreens. Reclaim seeks to become a business model for small scale agriculture here at home in Alberta.